Saturday, December 13, 2014

Recommended Resting

Napping
students -- exhausted by long nights of studying for exams or writing
term papers -- are common in campus libraries. But at Wake Forest
University's Z. Smith Reynolds Library, sleeping students can now be
found resting in comfortable recliners, instead of snoring into open
textbooks.

A student takes a nap inside Wake Forest University's library.

Last month, the library unveiled a technology-free relaxation area
called the "ZieSta Room." The room -- which originated as a proposal
from a group of students -- encourages students to turn off their
electronics, put away their books, and take a quick study break, even if
that means falling asleep. The space's guidelines stress
that the area is not a study space, and that the only reading taking
place there should be done for pleasure. The guidelines also remind
students that the room is not a place for "monkey business." (Sarah
Boerkircher, Wake Forest's assistant director of communications, said
that "the ZieSta Room is not a secluded or isolated room" and is
actually a designated space in a larger study area.)

As the area is open 24 hours a day and has no lights, napping is
expected and encouraged, said Susan Smith, the library's associate dean.

“Our building isn't really that close to the dorms, and we were
hearing from students that whenever they would leave to go rest, they
usually didn't make it back to the library," Smith said. "So this was a
way to help them relax and then be able to easily get back to studying.
Students sometimes call the university 'Work Forest' instead of Wake
Forest. It can be intense here."

Wake Forest isn’t just concerned about the stress of students
cramming for final exams in the library. In the last two years, the
university has revamped its approach to addressing student well-being
across campus -- and it's not the only institution trying to help
students better-handle the stresses of college.

More than half of college students said they have experienced “overwhelming anxiety” in the last year, according to the American College Health Association,
and 32 percent say they have felt so depressed “that it was difficult
to function." Eight percent reported that they had seriously considered
suicide.

“Students are more stressed and anxious than ever before,” said
Malika Roman Isler, Wake Forest’s new director of wellbeing. “They're
paying more than any one has had to and they know they’re graduating
into a world with very few guarantees. Their self-worth tends to be tied
to accomplishments both in and out of college. And we have high
expectations here, so we have to make sure that doesn’t tip into
distress.”

Last year, Wake Forest upgraded its outdoor areas
to include more seating, board games, outside classrooms, and a piano.
This fall, it created the director of well-being position, broke ground
on renovating its gymnasium, and launched a wellness initiative called
“Thrive.” The initiative, detailed on its website,
attempts to teach students about the “eight-dimensional balancing act”
that is well-being: emotional, environmental, financial, intellectual,
occupational, physical, social, and spiritual wellness.

Telling students about the eight tenets is one thing, Isler said, but
getting them to listen to and embrace the concepts is a different
challenge, especially for first-year students.

The first few weeks of college can be a dangerous time for freshmen
as they struggle to adjust to the new freedoms and responsibilities that
college can bring. At least eight freshmen
at U.S. colleges died in just the first month of the fall semester,
with many of the deaths related to alcohol, drugs, or mental health
issues. As tempting as it might be to give first-year students as much
information about these issues as possible during orientation sessions,
Isler said colleges should be careful as to how and when they
disseminate messages about student well-being.

“We try not to give them too much information too fast,” Isler said.
“They need to be able to soak it in and actually retain it. We’re trying
to create strong peer education and leadership networks around this,
too. They tend to tune out when ‘grown-ups’ give advice about how they
should be living their lives, but they’ll hear it more if it comes from
their peers.”

Victor Schwartz, medical director at the Jed Foundation, an
organization that promotes mental health and suicide prevention, said
that more institutions are starting to prioritize student wellness. In
September the Jed Foundation partnered with the Clinton Foundation
Health Matters Initiative to create the “Campus Program.” More than 65
colleges are currently participating in the program,
which is designed to help colleges and universities promote "emotional
and mental well-being." That includes reducing substance abuse and
preventing suicide.

“There’s this growing awareness that just providing information and
focusing on the academic side of things is not sufficient,” Schwartz
said. “The program is an attempt to help schools think through all of
this in a much more coordinated way. It’s important for schools to
connect the dots. That became unfortunately very clear to colleges after
the shooting at Virginia Tech. There’s this idea of integrated and
connected care.”

Smith said Wake Forest’s new library napping room was not an official
part of its larger wellness initiative, but that library staff and the
director of well-being will monitor the room’s effectiveness as a
stress-reliever, especially as the campus readies for final exams in the
next month.

The library will also pay attention to whether students actually
honor the area’s designation as a technology-free zone. Research presented last year
at the annual convention of NASPA: Student Affairs Administrators in
Higher Education, suggested that students’ overuse of cell phones and
social media may be contributing to their anxiety. Smith said it will be
up to the students to “self-police” that aspect of the space, though it
will provide lockers that will hold and charge students' electronics
until they're ready to start studying again.

“The biggest challenge so far is that we declared it as a tech-free,
study-free zone and some students have trouble with that,” Smith said.
“There’s really no lights there besides the windows, so it’s nice and
dim. But it’s really going to be up to the students to say to each
other, ‘No you can’t use your computer in here.’ It will be interesting
to see if students can unplug even when we specifically give them a
place to do that.”

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On the campaign trail...with my wife Rita

An action shot: The Principal...as a much younger man.

Faculty Senate Chair

Serving as Mace Bearer during the Inauguration of Michael T. Benson as EKU's 12th president.

Teaching

EDF 203 in EKU's one-room schoolhouse.

Professin'

Lecturing on the history of Berea College to Berea faculty and staff, 2014.

Faculty Regent

One in a long series of meetings. 2016

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